When those white, raw threads of spiritual power came at him, a rare hint of obvious shock surfaced on Xuan Qi's usually expressionless face.

Due to the predatory instinct in his body, the moment those spiritual power threads approached him, dark light surged around him and the resentment within his body reflexively wanted to break out and completely destroy this overconfident spiritual power attacking him.

But the next second, he forcibly suppressed his body's instinct to counterattack.

After all, the young man before him was just a mortal. Although he had cultivated spiritual awareness, compared to a monster like him that had existed since the beginning of heaven and earth, it was simply not enough.

Human bodies and spirits are so fragile that if they were tainted by his primordial resentment, what awaited the youth would likely be his soul scattering, without even the chance for reincarnation, only to completely dissipate amidst the cycles of heaven and earth, never to find even a shred again.

Thinking of that consequence, his black pupils contracted and a sense of fear actually welled up in his heart.

Except for when his form was unstable at the beginning of his birth, he didn't know how many years it had been since he felt such heartfelt fear.

Therefore, in the end he only quickly retracted the black qi around him, flashed to avoid those sharp spiritual power threads, and retreated a few steps back.

But the youth seemed determined to make things difficult for him. The youth released all the spiritual power threads; after he dodged to the side, those ferocious spiritual power threads swiveled in unison to change direction and continued to chase after him aggressively.

Perhaps it was the setting that evoked certain feelings, but as he saw the soft and lovely white spiritual power threads before him that blanketed the earth like silkworm threads, an image incongruously surfaced in Xuan Qi's mind of the two days and nights that wisp of his spiritual sense on the Underworld Warrant had spent with this young man while his true body was slumbering.

Back then, in order to avoid the great catastrophe of heaven and earth, he had directly hidden himself away in the underworld to cultivate in seclusion. Actually, with his cultivation level at the time, it would have been enough for him to vie for the position of Lord of the Underworld.

However, because being King Yama required dealing with too many troublesome matters, and he innately disliked such things, he directly chose to be a chief in the Court of Ghost Prison, one of the twelve Courts under King Yama.

He belonged to the Sirius star and had killing energy in his fate, while the Court of Ghost Prison was in charge of trials, so his entering it was quite fitting.

But as mentioned before, he was a lazy person when it came to handling affairs. Moreover, after so many years of cultivation, his true body had long since expanded from that tiny wisp at the beginning of heaven and earth to a size that could cover half the underworld.

So if he wanted to see people, he had no choice but to restrain his true body. He was not someone accustomed to restraining himself. Before entering the underworld, he had always randomly found a place to cultivate with his true body.

For various reasons, naturally after entering the Court of Ghost Prison he also did not want to work diligently like the other court chiefs. He only set rules for his subordinates, then used some leftover materials from when he practiced crafting magic treasures to create the Underworld Warrant.

He attached a wisp of his spiritual sense to the Underworld Warrant, letting it fulfill the duty of supervision in his stead, while his true body simply sank into the depths of the underworld, transforming into a boundless sea of resentful qi and falling into a long slumber.

Of course, this kind of slumber did not mean he completely ignored external affairs. The wisp of spiritual sense he attached to the Underworld Warrant still had an intangible connection with his true body, constantly relaying matters big and small in the Court of Ghost Prison to him.

Although that wisp of spiritual sense had no intelligence, it was a part of his true body that represented "rules". Handling general affairs in the Court of Ghost Prison was not a problem. So if nothing major happened, he was too lazy to intervene, and aside from that one time the evil spirits of the Abyss Prison rebelled, he had not truly awakened in so many years.

Since the establishment of the underworld, that Underworld Warrant bearing a wisp of his spiritual sense had never made a single mistake. He was very reassured about this.

So he never imagined that one day, while carrying out its duties, that always conscientious wisp of spiritual sense would secretly slip away from the Underworld Warrant to entangle with a mortal, completely tossing aside its original job without a single glance.

If not for the fact that the wisp of spiritual sense greatly weakened after leaving the Underworld Warrant, and after being scattered by someone's magic treasure directly returned to his true body and startled him awake from slumber, who knows when he would have discovered this matter.

The Underworld Warrant originally only possessed the power of rules to judge life and death by relying on that wisp of his spiritual sense. Once the spiritual sense left, the Underworld Warrant naturally lost its efficacy. If he had not discovered this matter in time, perhaps in a few years, the Court of Ghost Prison, or even the entire underworld, might have fallen into chaos. When that time came, it would be his headache.

But in fact, what troubled him countless times more than this right now was still that human youth who had been entangled by his wisp of spiritual sense for two days and two nights.

Compared to the immeasurably long years he had experienced, those brief two days spent with the youth were truly too insignificant. Not to mention, the one who experienced this was merely a wisp among his myriad spiritual senses, an edge of his soul. According to common sense, this memory fragment should have quickly vanished in the long river of his memories, naturally washed clean by the flood of time as it flowed on.

But strangely, that short memory fragment tenaciously took root in his mind along with the return of that wisp of spiritual sense from the Underworld Warrant. Moreover, its presence grew stronger and stronger. Ever since he was startled awake, his mind had been almost completely occupied by the youth's image.

It was simply like being possessed by a heart demon.

But he knew with absolute clarity that he himself was a being formed from resentment, attaining the Dao through slaughter. It would be more likely for him to become someone else's heart demon instead. Heart demons were even on his "menu". It was fundamentally impossible for him to be enthralled by one.

Perhaps it was because he had never been so intimate with someone before?

He was the first and only wisp of qi in heaven and earth that had successfully taken form. Although some other qi later gradually developed spiritual intelligence after him, there were intangible rules in heaven and earth.

The amount of destiny energy each species received was limited. The more prosperous a race, the greater the competition between individuals. Therefore, in order to eliminate threats from his own kind, before those qi could successfully take form, he devoured them as nourishment. In the end, he didn't have a single one of his own kind in this world.

Of course, there were quite a few cases of different creatures mating in the primordial times, but he was naturally averse to trouble. Moreover, due to the nature of his true form, he had an extreme lack of desire to get close to others, so he had never had a Dao companion until now.

Involuntarily, he recalled the bizarre and ambiguous scenes from the two nights entangled with the youth, and the wonderful feeling of his spiritual consciousness intertwining with the youth's soft, white one. Having never had a Dao companion before, Xuan Qi couldn't help but feel restless, and his mind wandered for a moment.

It was just this momentary distraction that made him completely lose the chance to escape. The youth's spiritual power threads took advantage of this opportunity and quickly pierced into his sea of consciousness!

Xuan Qi's heart instantly sank.

Unable to suppress the surging desires in his heart, he finally came to the mortal world to find the youth in his memories. However, when he actually met him, he found that he didn't dare to confess his identity to the youth.

What should he say?

—That he was the unknown creature who had forced the youth for two days and two nights, subjecting him to countless humiliations?

Although he didn't understand human love, Xuan Qi believed that if someone had dared to do this to him when he was weak, and if he met that person again one day, he would definitely devour their flesh and blood and tear their soul into pieces to repay the humiliation he had suffered.

So he was very afraid that if the youth knew his identity, he would directly come to fight him to the death.

Although given the difference in their strength, it would be difficult for the youth to cause him any serious harm. But the very fact that the youth would draw his sword against him was something he didn't want to face.

Just like now—

After the youth's spiritual consciousness pierced the periphery of his consciousness, it began to drill towards the depths of his sea of consciousness without stopping. The white spiritual consciousness was extremely vigorous, with the posture of being determined to fight him to the death!

He felt that since he appeared in front of the youth, he had not revealed any clues. How did the youth become suspicious of him?

In his original plan, he wanted to first establish a good relationship with the youth. Then, after the youth fully accepted him, he would confess his identity.

Although doing so would be suspected of deceiving the other party, it was absolutely impossible for him to directly confess his identity. He simply didn't dare to take risks on this matter. Subtle influence was already the best method he could think of in his anxious state of mind.

During the previous two days, that wisp of his spiritual consciousness had entangled countless times with the youth's spiritual consciousness. Even if they were unfamiliar at first, they could probably recognize each other at a glance now. So he didn't dare to release his spiritual consciousness in front of the youth at all, for fear that the youth would discover his identity through his spiritual consciousness!

But now, judging from the youth's posture, it was obvious that he had already discovered something amiss, and even suspected him to the point of directly making a move to test his spiritual consciousness!

Afraid that forcibly expelling the youth's spiritual consciousness would cause harm to him, Xuan Qi could only frown and retreat constantly. It was very obvious that those without shoes weren't afraid of those with shoes. So in the end, he still couldn't stop those spiritual consciousnesses and let them pierce into the depths of his own spiritual consciousness.

Xuan Qi couldn't help closing his eyes and completely gave up resistance.

Now he could only hope that the youth would vent his anger on him and then give him a chance to atone, so that the two of them wouldn't have to fight to the death.

The worst outcome would be that the youth wouldn't forgive him until the end of this life. But it didn't matter. His life was very long. He would make a mark on the youth's soul and find him again in his next life.

But in the end, after waiting for a long time, he didn't wait for the youth's attack. Those white spiritual consciousnesses entered his sea of consciousness, circled around his sea of consciousness while waving their bodies, and actually didn't directly attack. Instead, they tentatively explored his sea of consciousness.

And his spiritual consciousness, seemingly infected by that unruly wisp that had returned earlier, actually poked out its head uncontrollably after being gently touched a few times by the youth's spiritual consciousness, and wrapped around the youth's white spiritual consciousness, rubbing against it.

Judging from that posture, there was a hint of inviting the other party to dual cultivate with spiritual consciousness.

Xuan Qi: "..."

Author's Note:

Big shot: What to do if my spiritual consciousness is unruly?

Yan Yan: What to do if an idiot partner not only disappears for no reason and conceals his identity to lurk by his side, but also thinks of dual cultivating as soon as he's exposed?